FPM says still possible to form govt.; Hezbollah won't boycott caretaker cabinet

The country is “headed for disaster amid presidential and governmental vacuum” and “there is still a chance to form a government in the final moments” of President Michel Aoun’s term, Free Patriotic Movement sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Monday.

Aoun’s six-year tenure will expire at midnight and parliament has failed four times to elect a successor.

Al-Akhbar added that “there are strenuous efforts to push for the formation of a government whose decrees would be signed by Aoun” and “emphasis that vacuum should not leave any repercussions on the ground.”

Informed sources meanwhile told the daily that Hezbollah “does not want to boycott the caretaker cabinet, but at the same time is insisting that the cabinet and its premier should not take provocative or unilateral decisions that would disregard a main party like the FPM.”

Hezbollah has also agreed with Speaker Nabih Berri that caretaker PM Najib Mikati should not convene the caretaker cabinet “except for extraordinary and emergency cases and after winning the approval of all parties represented in the government,” the sources added.